In a rare excursion away from its headquarters in Olympia, the state Utility and Transportation Commission has scheduled a public hearing in Friday Harbor as part of its investigation into CenturyLink’s 10-day voice and data service outage in mid-November in the San Juan Islands.

The investigation will look into the cause of the outage, the company’s emergency preparedness and response, restoration efforts, and communication with the public.

The hearing will begin at 6 p.m., Monday, Dec. 9, in the San Juan County Council Legislative Hearing Room, 55 Second St., Friday Harbor.

The Commission has invited the public, San Juan County Department of Emergency Management and CenturyLink to present views and comments on the outage.

Community members may comment in person, or watch the meeting on the county website, www.sanjuanco.com and communicate remotely via email.

The UTC is the agency in charge of regulating the rates and services of telephone companies operating in Washington state, as well as classifying services and companies as competitive during the development of technological and market advancements in communication.

For more info, contact the San Juan County Council, 360-378-2898.